(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to broiled fish placed in a retort vessel which is excellent in quality and impact resistance strength.
(2) Prior Art
Retort foods made from fish materials have been proposed in Japanese patent un-examined publication Nos. 175477/1983 and 42838/1984. The former is a technique wherein a raw fish and a flavoring liquid are put in a retort pouch and subjected to retort sterilization processing after deaeration and sealing so that the fish may be cooked without generation of any curd or breakage during the sterilization. The latter is a technique wherein the meat of a white fish is soaked in an acid solution, steam cooked, and then put in a retort pouch into which a flavoring liquid has been poured so that the pH value of the fish meat assumes a particular value, and which is packed under vacuum and sterilized at a given temperature and under a given pressure. This technique has the effect of preventing the generation of any curd or breakage during sterilization.
However, retort foods of the types of fish proposed in the above-described known literature relate to so-called "boiled fish" which are obtained by retort sterilization of vessels in which the bodies of fish and flavoring liquids are received. On the other hand, no retort food consisting of "broiled fish" has been proposed under the present conditions.
The inventors of the present invention have paid particular attention to retort foods consisting of broiled fish, and have formed various retort foods by way of experiment and investigated them. As a result, the inventors have found that when retort foods consisting of broiled fish are manufactured, the particular problems described below are produced.
One problem is that, in the case of a retort food consisting of broiled fish, a fish body is directly received in a vessel (no fish stock is contained in the vessel as in the case of boiled fish) and thus any impact applied to the vessel from the exterior may easily damage the fish body so that the broiled fish is easily broken and its epidermis may easily be separated from it during retort sterilization or transportation.
Another problem is that, during retort sterilization, water separates from the fish body and juice (referred to as "drips" hereinafter) is generated. These drips are held between the fish body and the inside of a vessel, resulting in great deterioration of the feeling and taste of dryness which are required of broiled fish. In particular, the drips flow out and oils present in the drips adhere to and solidify on the surface of the fish during cooling, resulting in great deterioration of the appearance, if the vessel is transparent.